Editor’s note: Why we published this photo

We have published a photograph of a homicide victim lying — uncovered — on a Bridgeport street this morning. We have done so only after considerable thought and discussion.

This photograph was taken by a teenage girl who goes to the same school attended by Justin Thompson, the 14-year-old shot and killed Jan. 8.

For some reason, police left the body on the Bond Street sidewalk, uncovered, for several hours after it was reported around 4 a.m. The photographer and many other children were forced to walk past it on the way to school.

While publishing this photo may make some people uncomfortable, it is an undeniably powerful representation of the spate of tragedy the city is enduring. Ultimately, what’s unacceptably uncomfortable is schoolchildren having to walk past homicide victims.